1 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber array module, and more particularly, to a method of making an accurate optical fiber array by arraying and fixing single-core and multi-core optical fibers to make it easy to connect an optical waveguide device to the single-core and multi-core optical fibers, and a fiber array module.
5 Description of the Related Art
Accurate arrangement of optical fibers is very important for attaching the optical fibers to an optical waveguide device. In the case of the optical waveguide device, the waveguides can be very accurately spaced and arrayed by photolithography. However, it is difficult to accurately arrange single-core and multi-core optical fibers which are attached to this waveguide. In existing methods, the optical fibers are arranged by forming grooves in a plane substrate such as a silicon wafer or a metal plate and fixing the optical fibers in the grooves.
However, an accurate process is required to form a device for fixing the optical fibers using the grooves. Also, when the ends of the optical fibers are polished after the optical fibers are loaded, careful attention is needed because the optical fibers are thin. Furthermore, since the thin optical fibers have a small surface area, they have only a small contact surface when attached to the waveguide device, leading to a weak attachment. These problems deteriorate the overall performance of the waveguide device when the optical waveguide device is packaged.